Building a Labour Cost Budget for an Overseas Opening

Labour cost is one of the numbers most likely to be wrong in a business plan for an overseas opening. A budget that applies the labour cost ratio of your restaurants in Japan, or multiplies hourly rates seen on local job sites by headcount, tends to need revising after opening. The cause is estimating three things together that differ by country: market pay, visa salary floors and the employer's statutory costs.

This guide builds an annual labour cost budget for an overseas opening in five steps, using official government data. Per-hire costs are covered in budgeting an international chef hire, so here the focus is the whole restaurant's annual labour cost.

1. Build the budget in three layers

Stack these on separate lines and you can see where you are paying above market and which costs exist only because of the visa.

2. Step 1: Draw up a staffing table

Start with people, not money. Work out from opening hours and shifts how many people each position needs.

• Split by position. Head chef, sous chef, stations such as sushi and grill, prep, dishwashing, front of house, manager. For how roles divide, see Japanese kitchen roles explained.
• Count in weekly hours. Standard hours and overtime rules differ by country, so work out how many hours of labour you need each week and divide by that country's limits. Overtime rules are summarised in chef overtime rules by country.
• Decide who comes from Japan and who is hired locally. These numbers drive the costs in Steps 3 and 5.

3. Step 2: Set pay rates from official data

Government wage statistics are a steadier starting point than figures in job ads. These are the official sources for the main markets.

A median is the midpoint of pay for people in that occupation. If you are hiring a Japanese head chef or an experienced sushi or kaiseki chef, expect to pay above it. For US chefs, the 90th percentile is $98,560. Country rates are covered in sushi chef salary by country and sushi chef pay abroad (Japanese).

4. Step 3: Check the pay floors set by visas

When you bring a chef from Japan, pay is sometimes set by the visa minimum rather than the market. Check at the budgeting stage, or you will be raising the salary after you have chosen the candidate.

In Australia, the 482 floor of A$79,423 is well above the Award rate for a cook grade 5 (A$1,221.10 a week, A$63,497.20 a year). Budget on the basis that a chef brought from Japan will be paid at a different level from cooks hired locally.

5. Step 4: Add the employer's statutory costs

What employers pay on top of salary varies widely. These are the main items confirmed from official sources. The list is not complete, so check with a local accountant.

• United States: the employer pays Social Security tax of 6.2% (on wages up to $184,500 in 2026) and Medicare tax of 1.45%, 7.65% in total. State unemployment insurance and similar costs come on top and vary by state.
• Australia: the employer superannuation contribution is 12% of earnings. From 1 July 2026, Payday Super requires contributions with each pay day.
• Singapore: CPF contributions apply to employees who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents, at rates that vary by age and wage. For a foreign worker on an S Pass, there is a levy of S$650 a month, and the employer must buy medical insurance.

6. Step 5: One-off costs for staff sent from Japan

Sending a chef from Japan adds a lump of first-year costs on top of annual pay.

• Government visa fees. For Australia's 482: sponsorship A$420, nomination A$330 and the visa application charge of A$4,015 (from 1 July 2026), plus the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) levy of A$1,200 for each year of the nomination period for businesses with turnover under A$10 million. The US E-2 visa application fee is US$315.
• Travel and housing. The flight out, temporary accommodation on arrival, furniture. Some countries make certain costs the employer's legal responsibility. See designing housing and relocation costs (Japanese).
• Costs at the end. In Singapore, when you cancel an Employment Pass, the employer must pay for the flight home unless the worker agrees in writing to bear the cost.

7. Worked examples: Sydney, Singapore, Los Angeles

These calculations use the figures above. They are examples of how to build the budget, not a statement of actual pay or terms. Overtime, penalty rates for weekends and public holidays, and some state taxes and insurance are not included.

Sydney: one head chef on a 482 and one cook grade 3

Singapore: one chef on an S Pass

At MOM's median of S$3,850 a month, annual pay is S$46,200 and the levy is S$7,800 a year (S$650 × 12), a total of S$54,000 before medical insurance. The S Pass minimum rises with age, though, so for some candidates S$3,850 will not be enough.

Los Angeles: one head chef and one cook

The BLS median for chefs in the Los Angeles metro area, $69,990, plus 7.65% employer tax ($5,354.24) comes to $75,344.24. For a cook at the national median of $37,390, adding 7.65% ($2,860.34) gives $40,250.34. Note that the cook figure is national, not Los Angeles data.

"One chef" costs very different amounts a year depending on the country and the visa.

8. What to leave room for

• Rule changes. Singapore's EP and S Pass floors rise on 1 January 2027, and Australia's 482 floor went up on 1 July 2026 (it was A$76,515 the year before). Multi-year plans should assume changes.
• Exchange rates. If head office budgets in yen, labour costs in local currency move with the exchange rate.
• Pre-opening pay. Staff are paid during pre-opening training too. For a staffing schedule towards opening, see staffing plan for an overseas opening (Japanese).
• Vacancies and rehiring. Food service has high turnover. MOM reports an average monthly resignation rate of 2.2% for food and beverage services in 2025, against 1.2% for all industries. Hiring costs are discussed in hiring costs for Japanese restaurants abroad (Japanese).

We could not find any official statistic on labour cost as a share of sales for Japanese restaurants abroad. Rather than working back from a ratio, build up from headcount and rates as described here.

General information, not accounting, tax or immigration advice. Figures were checked against official government publications as of 22 September 2026. The worked examples show a method of calculation and do not represent actual pay levels or costs.